One of the hundred books a year I read:

Lisa Power should be celebrating the success of her recent best-selling novel, but instead struggles under the weight of grief she has named the Dark Star–a series of deaths taking nearly her whole family from her. To escape the memories, she has moved outside of the town of Thief River Falls to a rural area, well outside the jurisdiction of the TRF police, so why are they knocking on her door late one night and discussing breaking in?

As soon as they leave, a young boy appears from the field. He doesn’t remember his name or how he got there, but has vague recollections of witnessing a murder and then escaping after being buried alive in the TRF cemetery–just like the protagonist from Lisa’s recent novel.

Horrified, Lisa vows to protect the boy from the corrupt police and the local District Attorney who directs them, an evil man who also happens to be the father of her late husband. She despises him so much she gave the antagonist in her novel his name.

She enlists the help of her friend, a doctor at the local hospital, but even that turns dark as she soon suspects the woman of being complicit in the corruption.

With the danger pressing in from all sides, Lisa may have to choose between saving the boy’s life or her own.